Cellular phones typically transmit at radio frequencies (RF) in the 1 to 5 GHz range. At these frequencies, transmission lines have an impedance of approximately 50 Ohms, while typical cellular phone transmission power amplifiers have output impedances in the range of 1 to 5 Ohms. Cellular phones therefore require an impedance matching circuit between their power amplifiers and transmission lines.
In addition, regulatory bodies such as the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) have strict regulations regarding harmonic suppression in cellular phones. This suppression, if properly implemented, prevents cellular phone use from interfering with communications equipment operating at the higher frequencies harmonics.
Traditionally, cellular phone handsets have been manufactured to meet these two requirements by having two separate circuits, one for impedance matching and one for harmonic suppression. It is also usual to construct each circuit using discrete passive elements, i.e. inductors, capacitors and chip resistors, mounted on printed circuit (PC) boards, because of the typical capacitor and inductor values required by such separate circuits.
Circuits made using discrete components tend to be large and bulky. Moreover, multilayer PC board ground effects tend to introduce excess inductances that make obtaining the required level of harmonic suppression difficult. It is therefore desirable to have circuit designs in which the inductance and capacitance values allow monolithic integrated circuit implementation, as the associated batch manufacturing processes are less expensive, while the resultant circuits avoid the inductance problems associated with PC boards and are smaller and less bulky.
Another approach to reducing the size of a low loss circuit is to combine the impedance matching and filtering functions into a single circuit. This can be done, for instance, by first designing a circuit that matches input impedance to output load at a particular transmission frequency (also referred to as the fundamental frequency). A low loss, minimum delay version of such an impedance matching circuit typically consists of at least one series arm, having several inductors, and at least one shunt arm, consisting of capacitors. By suitable choice of capacitor and inductor values, input and output impedance can be matched at the fundamental frequency. It is also possible to replace a shunt capacitor with a somewhat smaller capacitor and a suitably chosen inductor connected in series. At the fundamental frequency the capacitor/inductor pair behaves essentially like the original, somewhat larger shunt capacitor. Not only does this reduce the size of the required capacitor, but the capacitor/inductor pair may also be used as a harmonic filter. This additional benefit is possible because a capacitor/inductor pair connected in series has a resonance frequency (also known as the series resonance frequency) at which the combination essentially acts as a short circuit. If the capacitor and inductor values are chosen judiciously, this series resonance can be made to occur at a harmonic of the fundamental frequency. The shunt capacitance element of the matching circuit then also acts as a harmonic filter by essentially becoming a short circuit to ground at the harmonic frequency, thereby preventing transmission of that frequency to the output.
A problem of designing such combined impedance matching and filtering circuits (also known as matching filter circuits) is that there are a limited number of shunt elements in a typical matching circuit. Effective harmonic suppression requires filtering at multiple harmonics. Moreover, a capacitor/inductor series resonance typically has a high quality factor (Q), i.e. the width of the resonance is narrow. One way to improve the bandwidth of such filters is to have two or more capacitor/inductor series resonance filters, each offset by a suitably small frequency, on either side of the harmonic frequency being filtered. Such designs require a relatively large number of filter elements. The problem, therefore, is how to design a matching filter circuit having a sufficient number of filters (also known as harmonic traps) to provide the required level of harmonic rejection, given the limited number of conductive shunt arms in a typical, low loss minimum delay matching circuit.